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Keeping the Heart, June 4
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
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Why are there so many ... who are spiritual failures, who have unsym-
metrical characters? It is because they did not, when they knew the truth,
and do not now, begin to practice the truth as it is in Jesus. They do not let
Him take away their faulty attributes of character.... He whose conversion
is righteous carries righteous principles into all his life practices. He only
is well grounded in the faith who lives by every word that proceedeth
from the mouth of God.
There are many who testify daily, I am not changed in character, only
in theory.... All may through faith gain a conqueror’s crown, but many are
not willing to engage in hand to hand warfare with their own imperfect
dispositions. They retain attributes which make them offensive to God.
Daily they are transgressing the principles of His holy law. If all would
only learn the simple lesson that they must take and wear the yoke of
Christ and learn of the Great Teacher His meekness and lowliness of heart,
they would better fulfill their covenant to love God supremely and their
neighbor as themselves.... They must begin at the very beginning. Christ
says, Take My yoke of restraint and obedience upon you, and learn of
Me.... The heart will then be made right with God, through the creative
power of Christ. Partakers of the divine nature, they are transformed....
The renovating, transforming work must begin in the heart, out of
which flow the issues of life. Oh, how then can lip service be regarded as
sufficient? ... I entreat you, for Christ’s sake, do not stop at any halfway
place, but press on, press on. Advance to the perfection of Christian
attainments. Leave nothing insecure. Watch thyself with all diligence.
Remember that you are responsible not to misrepresent Christ in character.
Let us not by our defects lead others to practice the same sins....
Those who claim to have advanced light must reveal the influence of
that light in their words, their deportment, their voice, their actions, at all
times and in all places.
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