Our Duty to Represent the Master

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We are usually well, and are seeking to put our entire dependence in the Lord. I have been looking over a large amount of matter. My head was tired on Sabbath and I had to keep quiet.

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We are having most beautiful weather. It is almost like summer. The light of the moon makes the nights almost as light as day.

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I have received a letter from Elder Haskell. They are on their way to Loma Linda, and they expect to meet me there. But I do not really see it to be my duty to leave my workers and break up just at this critical time. We need every jot of ability we have.

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I have to work carefully and not feel too deeply over the known position of our brethren who are not disentangling themselves from erroneous science and making sure that they are on the firm foundation. I carry a burden continually because of the souls who know the truth, but have not manifested its sanctifying power in their lives and characters. I should suffer much if I could not lay my burden upon the great Burden Bearer.

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Bring Forth Good Fruit We must keep before the people veracity, justice, love, goodness, and every virtue that comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. In all the lowliness, meekness, and gentleness of Christ, His love is expressed to us. His spiritual life energy we must have if we are daily overcomers. All our power is derived from Him. Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. The prayer of Christ to His Father is a representation of what we must be if we are working to be overcomers; and if we meet this representation we shall certainly bring forth good fruits. [John 17:17-26.]

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As Christ came to the world to seek and to save perishing souls, that they should have the light of truth, so also hath He committed the same work to all who receive Him as their Saviour. «And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.»

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How important that we should be rooted and grounded in the truth! No falsehood is of the truth. The Lord Jesus has promised that if we receive Him by faith and believe in Him as our pattern He will give us «power to become the sons of God.» The gospel of Jesus Christ contains the grand principles of all truth, expressed in a life of purity. In love and true righteousness these principles are to be proclaimed to the world. In all our dealings with one another we are to obey the precepts of the law of God. «I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.»

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Christ Judged by His Followers From these words we see how much is dependent on the character of all those who claim to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the lives of Christ’s followers the world will judge the Saviour. If anyone, in word or deed, departs from the living principles of the truth, he dishonors his Saviour and puts Christ to open shame. Let every soul believe in Christ, and receive the power that Christ has promised, that he may be a child of God, holding the truth conscientiously, its principles interwoven with his words, his spirit, and all his works. Thus Christians may become a refining, purifying influence, working against false religion and infidelity. Their presence brings with it the grand influence of heavenly principles, making them, through Christ, an honor to the gospel. They increase in power to communicate the sanctifying grace of heaven, gaining continually in influence through their increasing reverence for the truth. Their hearts are filled with the peace of Christ.

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A true Christian feels daily that his lifework should be to represent the untiring earnestness that was shown in the life of Christ. Every soul should feel under sacred obligation to represent Christ to the world. All are to remember that they are in the presence of Christ, and in no case are they to utter a word that will grieve the Holy Spirit. They must show to the world that they are sons of God, that because they have chosen and believed on Christ, He has given them power to become the sons of God. In every business deal, in every act, they must honor Him who has given them this power.

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I am instructed to present these principles, the message to which I have listened in the night season. I am to present the underlying principles of the Christian warfare. All who truly love the Lord Jesus will accept His yoke and learn of Him. «Learn of Me,» said the holy, sanctified Teacher, «for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.»

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The Christian life is a warfare, not against believing brethren, but against the seducing spirit of the enemy, against the subtle, deceiving influence of the serpent, which creeps into our thoughts and minds. «Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.» Make no provision for the flesh, to deceive, to falsify, to work just as Satan worked in Eden. He is watching his chance to develop if he can only have an opportunity. Give him no foothold. There is something we are charged to do: «Resist the devil,» and the promise is, «he will flee from you.» Why? Because the angel of God lifts up for you a standard against the enemy, and he flees.— Letter 327, 1905 . —

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When the Church Awakes Prayer is needed in the home life, in the church life, in the missionary life. The efficiency of earnest prayer is but feebly understood. Were the church faithful in prayer, she would not be found remiss in so many things; for faithfulness in calling upon God will bring rich returns.

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When the church awakes to the sense of her holy calling, many more fervent and effective prayers will ascend to heaven for the Holy Spirit to point out the work and duty of God’s people regarding the salvation of souls. We have a standing promise that God will draw near to every seeking soul.

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The church needs to be begotten again unto a lively hope «by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.» When the church awakes to a sense of what must be done in our world, the members will have travail of soul for those who know not God and who in their spiritual ignorance, cannot understand the truth for this time. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, is to be woven into all our experience. We are to pray and watch unto prayer, that there may be no inconsistency in our lives. We must not fail to show others that we understand that watching unto prayer means living our prayers before God, that He may answer them.

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The church will not retrograde while the members seek help from the throne of grace, that they may not fail to co-operate in the great work of saving the souls that are on the brink of ruin. The members of a church that is an active, working church, will have a realization that they are wearing Christ’s yoke, and drawing with Him.

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The heavenly universe is waiting for consecrated channels, through which God can communicate with His people, and through them with the world. God will work through a consecrated, self-denying church, and He will reveal His Spirit in a visible and glorious manner, especially in this time, when Satan is working in a masterly manner to deceive the souls of both ministers and people. If God’s ministers will co-operate with Him, He will be with them in a remarkable manner, even as He was with His disciples of old.

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Will not the church awake to her responsibility? God is waiting to impart the spirit of the greatest missionary the world has ever known to those who will work with self-denying, self-sacrificing consecration. When God’s people receive this Spirit, power will go forth from them.— MS. 59, 1898 . —

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The Passive Graces The Lord permits circumstances to come that call for the exercise of the passive graces, which increase in purity and efficiency as we endeavor to give back to the Lord His own in tithes and offerings. You know something of what it means to pass through trials. These have given you the opportunity of trusting in God, of seeking Him in earnest prayer, that you may believe in Him, and rely upon Him with simple faith. It is by suffering that our virtues are tested, and our faith tried. It is in the day of trouble that we feel the preciousness of Jesus. You will be given opportunity to say, «Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.» O, it is so precious to think that opportunities are afforded us to confess our faith in the face of danger, and amid sorrow, sickness, pain, and death. . . .

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With us, everything depends on how we accept the Lord’s terms. As is our spirit, so will be the moral result upon our future life and character. Each individual soul has victories to gain, but he must realize that he cannot have things just as he wants them. We are to observe carefully every lesson Christ has given throughout His life and teaching. He does not destroy; He improves whatever He touches.— Letter 135, 1897 . —

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A Quick Work When divine power is combined with human effort, the work will spread like fire in the stubble. God will employ agencies whose origin man will be unable to discern; angels will do a work which men might have had the blessing of accomplishing, had they not neglected to answer the claims of God.— R. & H., Dec. 15, 1885 . —

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Signs of Christ’s Coming Satan now knows that his time has come. He has deceived the world until his image and superscription is stamped upon all their ambitious projects. Whatever their object for wishing to gain the supremacy, men are willing to sell their souls to Satan in order to obtain the highest place.

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Christ sees the termination of the conflict. The battle is waging more and more fiercely. Soon He will come whose right it is, and will take possession of all earthly things. All the confusion in our world, all the violence and crime, are a fulfillment of the words of Christ. They are signs of the nearness of His coming.— Letter 264, 1903 . —

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At the End of the Conflict As Noah proclaimed his warning message, some listened, and worked with him in building the ark. But they did not endure. Evil influences prevailed. They turned away from the truth to become scoffers.

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Thus it will be in the last days of this earth’s history. Those who today hear the message of truth, but do not believe, will fall amid the moral infidelity, even as in Noah’s day those who were not firmly grounded failed to stand till the end of their probation. When the Lord rewards every man according to his deeds, these men will understand that God is truth, and that His message would have been their life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence given, and practiced the conditions laid down. Then they will see that they might have been saved had they not rejected the only means of salvation.

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The trials of God’s people may be long and severe, but the Lord never forgets them. Those who believe the truth and obey the commandments will find refuge in Christ. They will have the effectual protection of His ever-loving care as long as they take their position on the side of God and His law, which ever has governed and ever will govern His kingdom. Those who hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will find that God is faithful and that He will fulfill His covenant to His commandment-keeping people.— MS. 42, 1900 . —

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The Keeping Power of God We are not kept by our intelligence, by our words, or by our riches. In these we find no safety. We are kept only by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We are living in a period of time during which we must by faith be allied with an infinite God, or else we cannot overcome the strong powers of darkness seeking to destroy us. The Holy Spirit is as a light shining on our pathway. Let us put our trust in Christ, who is ever at our right hand to help us. Let us take courage, placing our confidence and our trust in Him. He has not left us destitute.— MS. 110, 1901 .