From Grace to Grace

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We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement, and put on the robe of Christ’s righteousness. The work of God is to be steadily carried forward. We are to bring ourselves, body, soul, and spirit into subjection to Christ. Unless we do this, the health of both body and soul will be endangered.

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God desires His workers to gain daily an understanding of how to reason logically from cause to effect, arriving at wise, safe conclusions. He desires them to add to the strength of the memory. We cannot afford to make mistakes. As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of Him how to work successfully. We are to ask God for sound judgment, and for light to impart to others. There is need of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant farther on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend.

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The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day by day. The close of each day should find us a day’s march nearer the overcomer’s reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life, and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.

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The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, «Advance. The night cometh, in which no man can work.» Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.

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Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success, Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men, and act as a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven, and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth, -nothingness.

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In all ages God has given human beings divine revelations, that thus He may fulfill His purpose of unfolding gradually to the mind the doctrines of grace. His manner of imparting the truth is illustrated by the words, «His going forth is prepared as the morning.» He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.

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«Ye are.» says Christ, «the light of the world.» As the sun goes forth upon its errand of mercy and love, as the golden beams of the day flood the canopy of heaven, and beautify forest and mountain, awakening the world by dispelling the darkness of night, so the followers of Christ should go forth upon their mission of love. Gathering divine rays of light from the great Light of the world, they should let them shine forth in good works upon those who are in the darkness of error.

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Do you realize that you are the light of the world? Do you, in your words and deportment at home, leave a bright track heavenward? What is it to be the light of the world?-It is to have God for your guide, to have the companionship of holy angels, and to reflect to others the light that shines upon you from above; but if you fail to exercise Christian courtesy, forbearance, and love in your families, God and holy angels are grieved away, and instead of being the light of the world, you are bodies of darkness.

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It is possible through the grace of Christ, to have control over yourselves at all times. If a dear friend, one whose good opinion you greatly desired, should come into your home, you would not be found fretting and scolding; but you would control your words and actions, and would seek in every way so to conduct yourselves as to gain his respect and confidence. Shall we take more care in the presence of a comparative stranger, than in the presence of those who are dear to us by the ties of nature; or in the presence of Jesus and the heavenly angels?

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It is not the will of God that we should be gloomy or impatient, nor that we should be light and trifling. It is Satan’s studied plan to push persons from one extreme to the other. As children of the light, God would have us cultivate a cheerful, happy spirit, that we may show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.

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Go into a cellar, and you may well talk of darkness, and say, «I cannot see; I cannot see,» But come up into the upper chamber, where the light shines, and you need not be in darkness. Come where Christ is, and you will have light. Talk unbelief; and you will have unbelief; but talk faith, and you will have faith. According to the seed sown will be the harvest. If you talk of heaven and the eternal reward, you will become lighter and lighter in the Lord, and your faith will grow because it is exercised.

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Fasten your eyes upon Jesus, and by beholding you will become assimilated to His image. Do not allow your thoughts to dwell continually upon things of the earth, but place them upon things that are heavenly, and then, wherever you are, you will be a light to the world. Mrs. E. G. White. —